Mums the Word
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED! Before "Before I Sleep." How did John come across his gift for Elizabeth? How did he find her birthdate? This fic answers those questions.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Stargate: Atlantis_ MGM does.

_**A/N:** This ficlet occurs right before "Before I Sleep". I thought I'd have a little fun with how John finds out about Elizabeth's birthday. Enjoy! _

_I also have to dedicate this fic to all the guys and gals on Gateworld, because the evilness was inspired by you guys. :P_

_Again Thanks Astrochick for Beta-ing and finding my Freudian slips. :P_

**Mums the word**

It was hot and humid. Major John Sheppard regretted his decision of wearing his jacket under all of his gear for his mission as the designated driver to the Athosian village on the Mainland. He thought about taking off his jacket, but he would still have to carry it. Instead he opted to leave it on and treat himself to a bake-in-your-clothes spa treatment. He ran his hand through his hair, and realized his hair was also baking. He needed to find shade quick.

He wandered through the rows of the tents trying to find shade and the rest of his team. Teyla was off visiting someone. Aiden had been recruited to help Halling and some others put up a tent, and John had no idea where Rodney had gone. He had just disappeared and was perhaps off trying to charm an Athosian woman somewhere.

John caught sight of a tree that provided adequate shade and headed towards it, until he was intercepted by a little person with brown hair who had run up to him.

"Major Sheppard!" The boy called out.

"Jinto, long time no see," John said, still longing to be under the shade.

"It has been a long time since you've come to visit us," Jinto said.

"I've been busy," John tried to explain.

"That's what Teyla said. Did you fight any more wraiths? I've never seen a wraith in person, but I bet they are scary. Teyla said that she hoped that I never have to encounter a wraith. But you and Teyla are always encountering the wraith and you always come back safely," Jinto said in one breath.

"Whoa, you can slow down Jinto. I'm not leaving yet. Teyla is right. I wouldn't want you to encounter any wraiths, ever. They have bad skin and bad teeth and that's pretty scary," John said making a face.

"When I'm old enough, I want to be a fighter like you, Major Sheppard," Jinto said proudly.

"When you're old enough, I'll gladly teach you a few things," John smiled.

"Really? You'll teach me how to use this?" Jinto hands slowly reached out to John's P-90, but John moved the gun just out of Jinto's reach. The boy lowered his head in disappointment.

"In time, but right now let stick to this," John pulled out a Power Bar from his vest pocket and handed it to Jinto.

Jinto's eyes lit up again. "Thank you Major Sheppard!" Jinto exclaimed and ran off in the direction of the John's tree to play with his friends and show them his new treasure.

John decided it was better to wander around for another vacant spot of shade.

As John wandered and observed the villagers doing their daily tasks, John noticed one tent that hand its door open. He peered in to find that along the two sides of the tent were tables lined with pottery of different shapes and sizes.

"Major Sheppard," said a female voice. "Please come in. It is warm outside and you look like you are in need of some shade."

John jerked his head up to see dark-hair middle aged woman carrying a small jar in her hand.

"Hi, I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name," John said as he entered the shady tent.

"There is no need to apologize," she smiled. "I do not expect you to remember everyone's name. You are very busy man. Please linger here as long as you like." She walked over to one of the tables and started to rearrange the different pots on display.

"Thank you, ma'am," John nodded.

"Please call me, Deena."

"Thank you, Deena."

John walked along one of the tables and looked at the different shape and sizes of clay jars and containers.

"You have quite a collection here," he said picking up an oval shaped bowl. "Did you make this yourself?"

"Yes, most of them are made by myself. My family has been using our skills in pottery for trade for many generations."

"I see you've inherited the family business," John said replacing the bowl in its rightful place. John picked up another piece that was a small terra cotta red jar with a semi-flat cap. "This is nice," John said opening the jar. "What do you put in these jars? Mints?"

"Mints?" Deena asked.

"Mints, they're these small sweets that vary in size and shape, and they are suppose make your breath smell better." John noticed that Deena had on Teyla's trademark blank look. "It's hard to explain."

"I guess you could put 'mints' in them, but usually the villagers use them to store grain, herbs, or other things they see fit," she said.

Deena had finished aligning the pottery to her satisfaction and came to John, who was still observing the jar.

"This jar has a really interesting shape. It doesn't look like the other ones," he observed and replaced the lid on the jar.

"Do you like it?" Deena asked, taking the jar out of John's hands.

"It's really nice," John said unsure of what else to say.

Deena took the jar and started wrapping the jar in a brown cloth. "Then you should take this with you," she said, as she finished wrapping the jar.

"That might have to wait. I didn't bring anything to trade. Wasn't planning on a shopping trip this time," John said.

"You misunderstand, Major Sheppard. I am _giving_ this to you." Deena placed the wrapped jar back into John's hands. "If you do not want to keep it, I'm sure you have a lady friend who would appreciate a small gift."

"Actually, I…" John trailed off when he saw Deena cross her arms waiting for his excuse. He decided that it was best not to argue. "Thank you," he said instead, and slowly backed out of the tent doorway into the sweltering heat right into Rodney McKay.

"Hey, watch it!" Rodney cried.

"I'm sor—," John began, "Rodney?"

"I think I choked on a piece of bread," Rodney said as he coughed and patted his chest.

"If you were choking, you wouldn't be able to talk," John pointed out. "What are you eating anyway?"

Rodney took another bite out of the piece of flatbread he had. "Tava bread," he said between chewing.

"Tava bread? How is it?"

"It's not bad. A bit on the chewy end, but other then that it's edible." Rodney took another bite.

"Where did you get it from?"

"Somewhere." Rodney stopped eating to look around the tents. "All these tents look the same to me. I can't remember. Want some?"

"No, thanks. I think I'll pass."

"What's that?" Rodney asked using the piece of eaten bread to point to the bundle in John's hands.

"This? It's just something one of the villagers gave me."

Rodney stuck the piece of bread in his mouth to free his hands and took the bundle from John. He quickly unwrapped it and found the jar.

"Interesting," Rodney attempted to say, but it only came out as a garble.

"What?" John asked. Rodney shoved the jar back for John to hold and removed the bread from his mouth.

"I said interesting. What are you going to do with it? Put mints in it?" He asked taking another bite.

"I don't know. It doesn't really go with my stuff. I was thinking of giving it to Elizabeth, since she has all these pottery and stuff around her office," John said holding up the jar.

"Kiss up."

"Excuse me?" John asked as he rewrapped the jar with the piece of cloth.

"If you just randomly give her a gift, everyone is going to say you're being a kiss ass," Rodney explained.

"What? I can't just give a friend a gift?"

"No, especially when this 'friend' is your boss."

"Who made up that stupid rule?" John asked as he put the container into his backpack.

"Society."

"You mean Earth's society, but we're not on Earth."

"But you are around annoying Earthlings like…"

"You?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of Kavanaugh. The little snitch would report every little thing if given the chance."

"So I would need a reason, to give her this?" John rolled his eyes.

They both started to walk towards the direction they had parked the jumper.

"Maybe you could give it to her as a birthday gift," Rodney suggested.

"That's a good idea Rodney. I'll just wait until Elizabeth's birthday and give it to her. There's only one problem."

"Do you even know when Elizabeth's birthday is?"

"That's my problem. Do you know when Elizabeth's birthday is?"

"No."

"Do you know anyone who might know?"

"No."

"Do you know how I can find out?"

"No"

"Are you a genius?"

"No."

John snickered. "I wish I had taped that."

Rodney looked at John. "And you have a Master's Degree?"

"Shocking ain't it?" John smirked.

"So shocking I could die," Rodney said sarcastically. Then his face lit up as an idea came to him. "You know, if you can get your hands on the personnel files, you can find out her birthday there," Rodney suggested, finishing his last bit of tava bread.

"Yes, and where is the personnel department, that we don't have, located at?"

"Elizabeth's computer."

"And how am I supposed to get a hold of Elizabeth's computer with out getting court-martialed?"

"There's no way. Unless you want to sneak into Elizabeth's room and try to find her ID or something," Rodney simply said.

"Yes, that idea is _so_ much better." John rolled his eyes. He knew Rodney's plan. Rodney wanted him to beg for help, but John wasn't going to grovel just yet.

"These personnel files must also include our own files," John said.

"Of course, it would have our files. That's why I figure Elizabeth's would be in there as well."

"Aren't you the least bit curious about what is says on your file?"

"No, I already know what it says on my file. 'Doctor Rodney Mckay: handsome, astrophysicist, and invaluable genius.'"

"Right." John clicked on his radio. "Ford, how's summer camp coming along?"

"We just finished putting up the tent, sir. I was about to look for Teyla, sir," crackled the radio.

"All right, head for the jumper when you find her. We'll be waiting for you inside. Over," John said as they arrived at the puddlejumper.

"But it would be nice to see those words in writing," Rodney mused as they waited for the ramp to lower.

"With an ego like yours, I bet it'd be nice," John said walking up the ramp and sat in the pilot seat.

"Major, you shouldn't be insulting me if you're begging me for help," Rodney said taking his seat.

"Who said I was begging?"

"I did."

"If I must inform you, I was not begging. I was only trying to pique your interest in accessing Elizabeth's computer. But I guess your not interested, so I'd have think of some other way," John said nonchalantly and started to fiddle with the controls.

Aiden and Teyla finally arrived and made their way into the front of the jumper.

"Fine it's a deal, but you have to figure out how to keep her away for as long as I need," Rodney said as Aiden and Teyla took their seats. John grinned, while Teyla looked over at John inquisitively.

"A deal?" she asked. John only shrugged and started the jumper.

* * *

John spent the rest of the day trying figure out how he was going to distract Elizabeth for a particular amount of time without her getting suspicious that he was stalling her. So far all the ideas he came up with were ludicrous, and as soon as he would execute them, Elizabeth would send him straight to a padded room, or maybe order him to pay a visit to Heightmeyer.

John entered Rodney's lab to find Rodney staring at his laptop screen and scratching his head.

"Rodney, how long do you think you will need?" John asked trying to peer over to laptop to catch a glimpse of the technobabble Rodney was deciphering.

"I should be done in an hour," Rodney said with out breaking contact with the screen.

"I'm not talking about whatever you doing right now. I'm talking about how long do I have to distract Elizabeth?" John paused to make sure no one else was around and lowered his voice, "from her you know what," John imitated typing on a keyboard.

"I should be done in about 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes at most," Rodney guessed.

"So you need a total of an hour and fifteen minutes?" John teased.

"What?" Rodney stopped, "Oh, please stop spitting out random numbers like that, it disturbs the flow of conversation. Now what was I talking about?"

"Being a criminal," John supplied.

"Oh yes, I should be done in ten minutes. Anything more is just inconceivable for someone like me," Rodney said.

"So half an hour," John said.

"If you feel like distracting her for that long, be my guest." Rodney returned his attention to the blinking display on his screen.

"So when we going to execute this diabolical scheme?" John asked.

Rodney was already absorbed into his work again. "When I have time," he stated.

John knew this conversation was not getting anywhere, and decided to regain Rodney's attention. John pushed the laptop screen closed.

Rodney glared at him. "What?"

"Personal file" John simply said, reopened the laptop screen, and left Rodney's lab.

John walked down the hallway counting down the seconds before Rodney changed his mind.

"Major!" Rodney came running up behind John. "You walk fast," Rodney said trying to catch his breath. "All right, we'll do it now."

"What?" John didn't expect Rodney to be this eager to find out his own personal records. In addition, John still hadn't figure out how to stall Elizabeth. "I don't even have an idea to keep her away from her office yet."

"Well it's time for you to work on your improvisational skills," Rodney said pointing to a curly brown-haired figure wearing a red top enter her room. "If you're lucky maybe she'll stay in there for the next half-hour, or not," Rodney said, as he saw Elizabeth walk out of her quarters again.

"Crap," John muttered under his breath and left Rodney to catch up with Elizabeth.

* * *

Elizabeth stepped out of her room wondering where she might have lost her necklace. Her hand brushed against her jewelry-less throat. She didn't realize how much she fiddled with her necklace, until she had sat down in her office to catch up on her reports and found it wasn't there. She had come back to her room to find it, by retracing her steps, and so far she had came up with nothing. She was about to return to her office before she hear someone call out her name.

"Elizabeth!" John called for Elizabeth to stop walking, and jogged up to catch her.

"John, is there something wrong?"

"Um…no…I just wanted to," John couldn't think of anything to say. "Ask you something," he finished. Then he noticed that Elizabeth attention was elsewhere. Her eyes were mostly on the floor, searching. "Are you okay?"

Elizabeth jerked her head up slightly embarrassed that John had caught her not paying attention to him.

"I'm fine. I just can't find something?"

"Did you lose something? Do you need help?" John was elated. He didn't have to think if a distraction. He could stall Elizabeth by keeping her busy and looking for whatever it was she lost.

"You know that necklace that I always wear?" Elizabeth finally gave up surveying the hallway, and gave her attention to John.

"You mean the weird heart shaped one with the little jewel in the middle?" John asked and looked in the direction of her neck. "Which isn't there…so that is what you've lost?"

"Yes, and I don't know where or when I might have lost it. So I came back here to retrace my steps."

"Did you check your room?" John asked, knowing that Elizabeth just came out of there.

"I just came from there. I didn't see it."

"You were only in there for ten seconds, of course you couldn't find it," John blurted out.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow and looked at John. "How do you know I was only in there for ten seconds?" She narrowed her eyes, "Unless, you were waiting for me."

"I wasn't waiting for you," John quickly said. "Well I did want to ask you something, but I happen to be talking to Rodney about something when you walked into your room and…" John started to ramble.

"Easy, John, you sound like I just caught you with your hands in the cookie jar," Elizabeth mused.

John let out a breath. She wasn't suspecting anything…yet. "You have a very strange sense of humor. You know that?" he said following Elizabeth into her room.

Elizabeth's room was approximately the same as everyone else in size and sparseness when it came to furniture. Even with the limited amount of personal items, Elizabeth managed to add a few personal touches into her room. Everything in her room was neat, organized, and in its place.

"Neat," John commented when the lights came on in the room.

"Your room is neat too," Elizabeth pointed out.

"That's because I'm a neat freak," John smirked.

"If you were a neat freak, you're hair wouldn't look like that," Elizabeth said, as she walked over to her bed and pulled back the covers.

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"It just has a life of its own."

"So does yours."

Elizabeth stopped shaking her pillow and looked at John. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"Nothing's wrong with your hair. It's nice. But it always seems to curl differently every day."

"It's called waking up early so I can look presentable to my crew. I usually don't just roll out of bed and into my briefings."

"Yeah, we've got to tell Rodney to stop doing that. Especially during the early meetings," John joked. John helped shake her blankets to see if her necklace was lost between them.

"It's not on the bed or in the blankets," Elizabeth sighed dropping her pillow on the rumpled bed, while John knelt down on the floor to look under the bed. All that he found under the bed were dust bunnies.

"It's not under the bed either," he added.

Elizabeth looked between the crack made by the nightstand and her bed and found nothing.

"I'm telling you. It's not in here," Elizabeth said, as she started to make her bed.

John stood up and thought about other possible places she could have lost the necklace in her room.

"Where are the clothes you wore last night?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth looked at him oddly.

"Maybe your necklace got caught on your shirt when you were changing. Sometimes my dogtags come off when I change," John explained.

Elizabeth smoothed the last wrinkle on her newly made bed, and walked towards a chair that had her pajamas draped on it. Elizabeth picked up her T-shirt and shook it. Nothing.

"I guess you were right," John conceded. "It's not here. Where else might you have lost it?"

"My office, the conference room, the balcony…" As Elizabeth listed these places, John glanced down at his watch only about ten minutes had passed. He still had to keep Elizabeth away from the vicinity of the office for at least another twenty minutes.

"How about the mess hall? Did you go there?" John quickly asked.

"Yes, I went there for breakfast, but I don't—"

"Let's go check the mess hall out then," John interrupted and dragged Elizabeth toward the Commissary. John hoped that Rodney would be done within the next ten minutes, because he didn't think he could keep Elizabeth away from her office for long.

* * *

Rodney entered Elizabeth's office to find her laptop still open. Rodney figured that this would be easier then he thought. Elizabeth must have left her office in a hurry, as he had noticed that she usually closed her laptop if she was done working.

He plopped himself down into Elizabeth's chair. So this was what it was like to be the in charge of the Atlantis expedition, sitting in an uncomfortable metallic chair with the view of the stargate to his left and the bustling control room in front. Rodney decided that his lab was better. Elizabeth's office was much smaller then his lab, and the transparent walls too revealing. Every nosy scientist, including himself, could look in here.

Just as he was about to start on his intended task, he noticed the pocket watch lying next to the laptop. He observed the time on the watch, which read three o'clock. Rodney scoffed at John assuming that he would need at least thirty minutes to get into Elizabeth's computer. This was going to be a piece of cake.

Rodney hit a key to deactivate the screensaver, instead a small window popped up requesting him to type in the password. He had forgotten about the screensaver passwords.

The general rules for passwords at work were to pick something from your personal life that no one at your work knew about. As for Elizabeth's personal life, he knew nothing. This might be a problem. He thought about restarting the computer, but doing that would be suspicious since Elizabeth would be expecting to come back and continue what she was doing, and Rodney didn't know what she was doing earlier, so he decided restarting the computer would not be a good idea.

Not sure of what to do, Rodney started to type in random things into the password box instead. At least the screensaver password didn't lock him out after three tries. He started to type in various things he found on Elizabeth's desk, such as, 'pocket watch', 'weird statue', 'laptop', and 'lamp'. When he ran of things on her desk, he moved on to objects in her office, then to names. He started with his own name then went down the list of all the crew members he could think of off the top of his head. None of them were it. He was sure 'Sheppard' would be the password since he could see Elizabeth using the bane of her existence as a password for her screensaver. But it wasn't.

Just as he was about to type in more obvious names like 'Atlantis', 'stargate', 'Ancients', and 'Terra Firma', Peter Grodin wandered into Elizabeth's office.

"Doctor Weir," Peter said, before looking at the person sitting behind the desk. "You're not Doctor Weir."

"Actually we switched bodies. Of course I'm not Doctor Weir," Rodney said irritably.

"Then what are you doing here? And where is Doctor Weir?" Peter asked.

"I'm here running a diagnostic on Elizabeth's computer, why else would I be here?" Rodney said coolly. "And as for Elizabeth, she's not here. So if you don't mind, I need to finish these diagnostics before she gets back."

"Calm down Rodney, your so edgy today. It's not like you're using Elizabeth's computer with out her knowledge," Peter said shaking his head and leaving.

Rodney glared at Peter's departing back and typed 'KILL' in the password window.

Rodney's eyes glanced over to the face of the pocket watch on the table and saw that he had spent the last fifteen minutes guessing Elizabeth's password. This was going to take him a bit longer they he expected.

* * *

"It's not here, John." A frustrated Elizabeth said as she placed her hands at her hips.

John had succeeded in keeping Elizabeth in the mess hall for the last ten minutes looking for her necklace. The only thing they found was that someone had a habit of chewing gum and sticking it under the tables.

"If it's not here, maybe it's in the one of the jumpers." After he suggested that, he realized how ridiculous that location was.

Elizabeth gave John an odd look. "John, I ask you, when was the last time I was in the jumper bay let alone a puddlejumper. And I can't believe I let you call those ships puddlejumpers." Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows as if this was the first time the thought crossed her mind. "What will people on Earth think?"

"They'll think it's creative," John said.

"Anyway, the necklace is not here. I'm going to the control room with or without you." Elizabeth walked out of the Commissary and into the transporter.

John slid into the transporter just before the doors closed. "Okay we'll check the conference room first," John said.

"You know you don't have to help me find this," Elizabeth said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you are trying to hide something from me."

"Me?" John said innocently. "I'm just helping because I can, and I'm an overall nice guy."

"Sure," Elizabeth said and walked out of the transport towards the gate room.

As they walked up the stairs to the control room, John made sure to usher Elizabeth in the direction of the conference room. When they started to pull the chairs from under the conference table to make their search easier, John peered through the opened conference room doors and saw that Rodney still in Elizabeth's office. It was nearly thirty minutes and Rodney was not done yet.

Rodney caught sight of John in the conference room as Elizabeth's attention was under the table. He rigorously shook his head to say he wasn't done. John sighed and held up his hands to say that Rodney had ten minutes to acquire the information and get out.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked.

John started to open and close his hands repeatedly. "Um…hand stretches," he said.

"Okay…Well it's not in here either," she said pushing the chairs back under the table.

"Let's try the balcony then," John said as he herded Elizabeth through the balcony door.

When they were outside, Elizabeth took in a deep breath and leaned forward on the balcony rail.

"I'm guessing that was your favorite necklace," John said.

"Yes, I had a lot of necklaces, but this one was the one I couldn't leave behind on Earth," she confessed. "I don't know why it's my favorite, but I guess because it was different. I've never seen another like it before."

"Maybe it has sentimental value, that you're just not telling," John asked playfully.

Elizabeth smiled. "Maybe. I guess I should stop looking for it and get back to work. Thanks John." She started towards the door.

Work. That meant that Elizabeth was returning to her office. John looked down at his watch. Then he saw it. Lying on the floor next to his feet was Elizabeth's necklace.

"Elizabeth," he said stooping down to pick up her lost treasure. "Look what I found." The necklace dangled between his fingers reflecting in the sunlight.

Elizabeth sighed with relief. "All this time, and it was out here."

"It appears that the clasp was a bit loose, but it should be okay now," John said, fiddling with the clasp and then held the necklace out with both hands. "Here. Turn around. I'll help you put this on."

Elizabeth obediently turned around and let John clasp her necklace back to its place.

"Thank you," she said as her hand came up to touch the necklace again to confirm that it was really there.

"Now you're sure your necklace isn't a wraith beacon?" John teased. "I don't want to accidentally activate another beacon with my magic touch."

"Unless the wraiths have managed to market jewelry on Earth, I assure you it is not a beacon."

"Good," John smiled.

"Now I don't have an excuse to not get back to work," Elizabeth sighed.

"Maybe you should stay out here just a little while longer. Reports can wait another ten minutes," John suggested. He figured if she didn't take his suggestion, then Rodney would be on his own. At least Rodney had his own way of talking himself out of things.

"All right five more minutes," Elizabeth said and joined a relieved John looking out into the horizon.

* * *

John and Elizabeth had been out in the balcony for about five minutes and Rodney was desperate. He still hadn't figure out the screensaver password yet. So far he had tried everything he could think of except numbers. He figured that no genius would use a silly number combination such as 123456 for a password, but Elizabeth wasn't a genius. Maybe her simple mind was trying to outsmart geniuses like him. If she was, she was hanging around Sheppard too much.

He figured he had nothing to lose and gave the numbers a try. He typed in 123456 and expected the incorrect password window to pop up, instead the screen saver deactivated and he was in. She was hanging around Sheppard too much, Rodney concluded.

He quickly minimized the window and found the personnel file folder relatively quick, and went straight to his file.

He thought the identification photo they had of him was horrid and didn't do him justice, but he believed he looked much better in person. He read through his file. It was everything he knew he was. There was only one thing missing. They didn't say he was handsome. It must have been an oversight or something.

Then he remembered why he was here in the first place. He quickly took note of Elizabeth's birth date and made a face. He glanced across the room to see the balcony door slide open and John walking with his back towards him, no doubt, trying to block Elizabeth's view of the office.

Rodney quickly closed the file he was looking at and restored the window that Elizabeth was reading. He quickly slipped out the other door in Elizabeth's office and happily returned to his lab.

* * *

"We should look for new living quarters," John said walking backwards, still trying block Elizabeth's view of the office.

"Aren't the quarters we have well enough?" Elizabeth asked trying to make her way around John and towards her office.

"The quarters we have now are fine, but there's so much of the city we haven't explored. I figure the next time we go exploring the city, we could scope out new living quarters." John took a quick glance back towards Elizabeth's office. He was relieved to find it vacant. "And maybe I can find a place with more wall space. I have this sweet Johnny Cash poster I need to put up."

"Why don't you put it up over your bed? You have wall space there," Elizabeth pointed out.

"I'll think about it," John said.

"It's up to you. If you want to go explore the city tomorrow, knock yourself out. Just not literally this time."

"Hey, I thought we weren't going to talk about that ever again."

"Sorry, mums the word," Elizabeth chuckled.

They entered Elizabeth's office.

Elizabeth immediately took her place behind her desk. John was ready to make his get away if he sensed any suspicion emanate from Elizabeth. She pressed a button on her laptop preparing to continue where she had left off. But instead of returning to work she paused and looked up at John.

"Is there something else that you need, John?" she asked.

John took her question as his cue to leave. He was relieved that she wasn't aware of any suspicious activity.

"No, not at all. I was just about to leave." He waved and left straight to Rodney's lab.

"So?" John said as soon as he walked into Rodney's lab.

Rodney looked up from his console as if he was surprised to see John.

"So what?" Rodney asked still trying to collect his thoughts.

"That was more then thirty minutes."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with stalling Elizabeth."

"I got lucky. Elizabeth lost her necklace, so I helped her find it."

"What's with you finding necklaces?" Rodney asked.

"I was a beach comber in a previous life. Why did it take you so long?"

"She had password on her screensaver."

"So what did you do sit there for half an hour guessing?"

"Pretty much."

"I thought you had some high-tech thing that could crack any password," John said annoyed.

"I thought that was too easy."

"Too easy," John rolled his eyes. "Anyway, what did you find?"

"Oh, I found that I'm a handsome and invaluable genius," Rodney said smugly.

"I know that already. I asked you to find out something."

"You did? You always seem to be jealous of the fact that I'm the handsome one."

"Rodney," John said sternly.

"Tomorrow."

"What?"

"Her birthday is tomorrow."

John sighed, "Talk about perfect timing."

"Yes, timing…I wonder if…hmm…" Rodney had already forgotten that John was standing in front of him and returned to the problem on the console.

"Thanks Rodney," John said and left.

* * *

John was all geared up and ready to go out to explore the city for the morning, but he had something to do before he went. He entered Elizabeth's office to find her missing. Her laptop was closed, which meant she was most likely out at the balcony.

Carrying his backpack in one hand, he made his way through the control room to the balcony. He found Elizabeth leaning on one of the balcony beams.

"There you are," he said as he walked through the balcony door.

"I was just stealing a breath of fresh air," Elizabeth said leaning her hands on the rail. "I thought you were off to explore the City."

"About to…" John said digging into his backpack. "Here's something on the Mainland the Athosian's made," he handed the bundle to Elizabeth. "Happy Birthday."

Elizabeth eyed him suspiciously. How in the galaxy did he find out? "Hmm…" She replied and unwrapped the brown bundle to find an interestingly shaped jar. "It's beautiful," she said admiring her gift.

"How did you find out?" She eyed him suspiciously again.

"Mums, the word," he smiled and left to unlock the secrets of Atlantis.

Elizabeth smiled. Her mission to Atlantis had been filled with surprises, and this birthday gift was one of the small surprises that she didn't mind getting. She wondered what other surprises might be in store for the day, and with John out exploring, there was no doubt in her mind there was probably going to be more surprises today.

**Finis**


End file.
